Sunflowers

Ah, the train. The air-condition. Love. We even had our compartment for ourselves most of the way. It was two years earlier, on a 7-hour long trip from Rome to Milan, I first saw the sunflower fields. I don’t think I’ve passed anything more beautiful during a train ride. So ever since that day I’ve had a thing for the sunflowers.

   As many of you may know I’m a writer. I write. I’ve written four books and writing in general is a great part of my life. It was only months after my trip to Italy I wrote a chapter called Grand Soleil (which means sunflower in French) where one of my characters gives a sunflower to my main person. It was set in the city of Paris.

 Sunflower fields of Tuscany

    Paris is one of my favorite places. I’ve visited the city several times and the autumn of 2011 we went there again. The first thing I see when we arrive in the city: A market where they sell flowers. Sunflowers.

    It wasn’t until this summer my passion for the flower started blooming again as I was walking the streets of Oslo with my boyfriend. We went cross a square where they always sell flowers out in the open, and there they were. Pretty, yellow sunflowers in a pot. And now not my home nor my hotels rooms are complete without a bouquet of sunflowers. So if anyone wonders where I am headed tomorrow, you’ll find me at the flower shop.

   Being back in Italy, on the very same track (from Rome to Milan) is kinda wonderful, kinda weird, but when it comes to seeing the sunflower fields again, I do not regret taking the train this time either. Florence, here I come.

Like a 14-year old in Paris

Mari Clémentine